Linguistics

Did you know that the official language of Uganda is English? Many people here speak a local language as their first language, but school, business, and government are carried out in English. It's British English rather than American English, but mostly it's Ugandan English.

One of the characteristics of Ugandan pronunciation is that the "er" sound is pronounced "ah" (as I explained at some length to Mom and Ken when they were trapped in the car with me and couldn't escape). This has tripped me up more than once.

Today I was riding with one of our regular special hire drivers, Havert. He began to chat with me and observed that, "There are no vistas now." I was surprised at his use of the word "vistas" since his English is pretty limited. Also, I was confused about where the vistas had gone. Was he referring to pollution obscuring them? Then I realized "vistas" was "visitors" and he was trying to comment on the fact that my mom and brother had left and we had no more company.

Another time we were downtown with a different special hire driver, one we'd never had before. His English was good, but he had me stumped when he asked if we'd seen the "big bads." My mind went immediately to Uganda's politicians, but it's unusual to talk politics with strangers, so I figured that wasn't it. Paul and Scott realized before I did that he was talking about the large, funny looking Maribou storks that fly over downtown, the "big birds." Sometimes I end up trying to fix my face in a non-committal expression and murmur something generic when I just can't figure out what they're trying to say. I'm sure they do the same for me.

Stay tuned for when I explain the difference between "okay," "that's okay," and "it's okay." It will be riveting.

On a different subject, we had dinner last Friday with a couple from Corvallis who are here to volunteer in Uganda for a few weeks, he as an orthopedic surgeon and she as an educator. They brought us an envelope Carl had sent along with New Yorker magazines for me and tax statements for Paul. One of us was happy for the envelope. They are a delightful couple and we thoroughly enjoyed our time with them. Thanks, Leon and Joanne!

Also, we leave Fri. morning for three weeks in Kenya. Half the time we'll be at RVA, Scott's school, helping prepare for the big high school banquet, and the other half Paul will be working on a project next door at Kijabe Hospital. We're looking forward to the change of pace being there will provide, and also, of course, to seeing Scott. He finally came down with the swine flu that felled a large portion of the school, but had a mild case so should be good to go for the banquet.